


As Fallen Snow

by Rhode



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Abuse of Power, Alternate Universe - Geisha, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Antagonist Leia Organa, BARON FINN aka Finn is a creep, Baron Finn, Bullying, Canon-Typical Violence, Chairman Kylo, Don't Like Don't Read, Drama, Elements of Buddhism, F/M, Fantasy, Human Trafficking, Hurt/Comfort, Kylo is twenty-five, Loss of Virginity, Nudity, Rey is sixteen, Romance, Sexual Harassment, Teen Sex, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, no family relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-07-06 20:57:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15894006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhode/pseuds/Rhode
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Rey is sold by her parents to a geisha house. There, she is forced into servitude, slaving away until the day that the house's ruling hierarchy determines that she is of high enough quality to service their clientele - wealthy men who will pay highly for the pleasure of a pretty young geisha's company.In this world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men and where love is scorned as an illusion - will Rey be able to rise above the pain of her abandonment and find true happiness?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is inspired by Memoirs of a Geisha and 后宫甄嬛传 (Empresses in the Palace). The summary is also adapted from the synopsis of Memoirs of a Geisha :) You don't need to be familiar with the source material to enjoy this fic!
> 
>  **Please note that this is a FANTASY STORY that isn't intended to be an accurate representation of any real-world culture or history.** I've taken plenty of liberties and added my own twist on things. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

Rey had never wanted to become a geisha. 

She knew that most of her customers assumed that she was born and bred to be one. Trained since birth in the arts of pleasing men - the latest delicate young girl to be born into a long line of pretty women, with their secrets passed down from mother to daughter, mother to daughter. Her customers would not have believed otherwise, given Rey's many charms and talents. 

But Rey had not been born into the life of a Coruscant geisha.

She had not even been born in the bustling capital city of Coruscant at all, but in Jakku instead - an obscure little village located in the middle of the desert, sparsely inhabited by scavengers, moisture farmers and the occasional band of roving raiders. 

Her childhood in Jakku had been anything but idyllic - the harsh, unforgiving desert was no haven for a young girl. Growing up, Rey spent most of her days entertaining herself, playing in the giant Ruins left behind from the first Great War, and scavenging the occasional piece of scrap metal from the Ruined machines to supplement their family's meagre income from the government dole. 

(Her parents were drunk more often than not, preferring to spend their dole money on alcohol instead of food for their only daughter. If Rey did not scavenge for scraps, she would have no choice but to go hungry.)

But despite all of its hardships, this life was all she knew. And despite all of its flaws, Jakku was still home. 

Until the day of her sixteenth birthday - the worst day of Rey's young life. 

 

* * *

    

Entering their run-down shack in one of the Ruins, Rey was stunned to see a large, hulking man crouched down uncomfortably at the family's poor excuse for a dining table - two wooden crates stacked side by side, with a thin piece of sheet metal balanced precariously across the tops of both crates. 

"Rey!" her mother cried, in a voice hoarse and scratchy from years of drink and smoke. "We have a guest! Come and say hello to Unkar Plutt."

Rey couldn't help but scowl. Unkar Plutt, the local broker, was well known to her. He was famously stingy, and more than once, he had underpaid Rey for the few items that she had managed to scavenge, forcing her to go to sleep on an empty stomach. There was no love lost between Rey and Unkar Plutt. 

"Unkar Plutt," Rey said warily, hanging back near the door. Something wasn't right. "What are you doing in my house?"

"Come here, girl," Unkar Plutt ordered, beckoning her close with one crooked finger. 

Out of nowhere, Rey's father appeared behind her, giving her a little shove forward. Rey stumbled once before straightening up, her frown deepening as she approached the unwelcome intruder. 

"What do you want?" Rey demanded. "What's going on?"

Nobody - not Unkar Plutt, not even her own parents - bothered to answer Rey. Instead, Unkar Plutt grabbed her chin between two of his fat fingers, jerking Rey's face towards him. 

Rey yelped a little at being manhandled by this brute. She batted at his wrist, but was unable to dislodge herself from his hold.

"She's got a bad attitude," Unkar Plutt said, his voice tinged with annoyance. "But I suppose she's pretty enough. Big brown eyes - they really go for that up in the city. She's too skinny, but she'll be fed enough where she's going. I'll give you ten thousand credits for her."

Rey's eyes widened in horrified surprise. She was being sold?!  

"That's great!" her father said gleefully, his eyes lighting up at the idea of walking away with that huge sum of money. Ten thousand credits would surely be enough to buy them at least three month's supply of alcohol. "We have a deal."

Rey slumped in dismay, feeling all the fight go out of her at that unthinkable exclamation.

"Papa!" Rey cried, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "You can't - don't do this, please! Mama! No!" 

Rey's father was completely impervious to her pleas, but her mother at least had the decency to look slightly guilty.

"It's not so bad, Rey," her mother assured her, patting her shoulder in an attempt at reassurance. "You're going off to the city to live in a nice house, and you'll get to eat all the food you want. Maybe you can even marry a rich man one day. Isn't that nice? Better than Jakku? You have no future here." 

"I don't want that!" Rey protested tearfully. "Mama, no! Don't let Papa do this! I want to stay here with you!"

Rey tried to struggle free of Unkar Plutt's grip again, but this time her struggles were almost perfunctory, completely insufficient to break her free from the large man's grasp. Her entire body felt weak with shock, her mind still reeling from the horror of hearing her father sell her off for drinking money. 

Of course, she had known that her parents did not really care about her, but this active rejection was on a whole different level from the day-to-day neglect that Rey had gotten used to. Try as she might, Rey couldn't prevent the hot tears of pain and anguish from coursing down her cheeks. 

Ignoring Rey's obvious distress, Unkar Plutt drew out a ten-thousand credit note and slapped it into her father's gleefully outstretched hand. 

"She's all yours," Rey's father said, hurriedly stuffing the money into his pocket. "Take her away."

"Bye, Rey!" her mother said, her voice cracking a little with emotion. She gave Rey a small, half-hearted wave as Unkar Plutt bodily dragged Rey away, his big, rough hands clamped tightly on Rey's small shoulders. 

"Take me back!" Rey screamed, her voice raw with agonized emotion. But her cries fell on deaf ears as she was dragged into the silent night. 

 

* * *

     

 

Rey curled up in the front passenger seat of the vehicle, sniffling to herself. 

Her wrists and ankles had been expertly bound together. The knots were firm, but not uncomfortably tight. Nevertheless, they were still effective enough to keep her a bound and helpless prisoner. 

Unkar Plutt had ignored her sobs, which eventually died down to tears and quiet whimpers as Rey cried herself out. "Stop snivelling, girl," was all he said, sounding completely bored as he got into the driver's seat. 

Unkar Plutt was clearly used to these sort of situations. Rey very much doubted that she was the first girl that he had brokered for sale. 

Rey couldn't even find it in herself to hate the callous man. All her hate and heartbreak was reserved for her worthless alcoholic father and her weak-willed mother. 

"Where - where are you taking me?" Rey asked in a broken little whisper. 

"Coruscant," Unkar Plutt said flatly. "You've been bought by an okiya. A geisha house."

Rey gaped in shock. A geisha house? 

She had heard of geisha, of course - beautiful young men and women who were skilled in the arts of singing, dancing and pleasuring men. Of course, Rey had never seen a geisha in person before. There were no geisha in Jakku. Geisha were a rich man's indulgence, and rich men were in short supply in Rey's poor little village. But even a simple desert girl like Rey had heard of Coruscant's famed geisha, renowned throughout the country for their charms and exquisite beauty.

"Me? A geisha?" Rey's voice came out in a small squeak. 

Unkar Plutt smirked. "Yeah, you certainly don't look like you have the makings of a geisha. The okiya will probably just use you as a serving girl. Though... you're still a virgin, right?" 

Rey's mouth fell open in outrage. She spluttered, "Why, that's - that's none of your business!" 

Unkar Plutt shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I already told them you were. Got a better price from them for a virgin girl."

Rey scowled thunderously, her tears giving way to indignant embarrassment. She was a virgin, of course - it wasn't like there were any other attractive boys her age In Jakku. But that was none of Unkar Plutt's business! 

Also, this talk of virginity was...terrifying, to say the least. She had an awful feeling about why the okiya would be willing to pay more for a virgin girl. 

To be sold off by her own parents, soon to be raped for the first time by some rich brute of a man... 

The tears started falling again, and this time Rey didn't bother trying to stop them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recap:
> 
>  _Okiya_ \- geisha house

  

 

As despondent as Rey was, she still couldn't help feeling a rush of amazement as they reached the glittering capital city of Coruscant. 

Rey had never seen so many people in one place before. As their car inched along slowly along the busy streets, she could hear a cacophony of voices speaking in hundreds of different languages. Street vendors hawking their wares shouted offers to passers-by, who mostly ignored them and kept their heads down as they hurried along, eager to get home from work. Occasionally, one of the bolder vendors would even walk right up to the windows of the stalled vehicles, offering to sell a skewer or perhaps a bottle of drink to the drivers as they waited for the traffic to clear up. 

But Unkar Plutt was in a hurry to reach their destination, and the delay just made him annoyed. He cursed constantly under his breath at the heavy traffic. Every now and then, he would lean heavily on the car horn, whenever he felt that the driver ahead of them was dawdling too much. 

Eventually, by the time that Unkar Plutt turned in to D'Qar, it was already almost dusk. 

D'Qar was the most prominent geisha district in Coruscant. The historic district was dotted with traditional low wooden houses, tightly clustered together. Rey looked about with wide eyes, her depression temporarily lifting she took in the incredible sights.

The fading rays of the setting sun bathed the curved rooftops of the little teahouses and shophouses in a soft pink glow. Above the doorways of each okiya, lanterns came alight one by one, casting flickering glows on the gracefully dressed geisha who were beginning to exit each house, preparing to start their rounds for the night. 

Rey couldn't help gaping at the sight. With each dainty little step that the women took, the hem of their kimono fluttered and rippled, casting the illusion of someone gliding along instead of walking. Occasionally, one of the geisha would pass by a friend or acquaintance, and the pair of women would then exchange graceful half-bows. Out of the open window of her car, Rey could hear snatches of chatter and laughter as the women greeted each other. 

In their full makeup and regalia, each one of these ladies looked so ethereally beautiful that Rey half-believed that they had to be angels. How could any mortal woman look like that? No wonder men were willing to pay so much for the pleasure of a geisha's company. 

Could she, a simple girl from the desert, ever become one of these geisha some day? 

Lost in her thoughts, Rey almost didn't notice when their vehicle finally turned into a back street, slowing to a stop in front of a small okiya.  _Naboo Okiya_ , it said in beautiful golden calligraphic script on a black wooden board above the door.

Unkar Plutt put the vehicle into park and got out, walking over to the front passenger door. He yanked the door open and gestured for Rey to swing her legs out.

Warily, Rey complied.

Unkar Plutt deftly untied the knots binding her wrists and ankles together. "Get out," he told her brusquely.

Rey briefly considered socking Unkar Plutt in the face and running off. A lifetime of scavenging in the Ruins had made her quite fit. Though she was skinny, her body was taut with lean muscles, and she was in much better shape than Unkar Plutt. Now that her limbs were free, Rey was quite sure that she could escape from the corpulent man if she really wanted to. 

But even if she ran away, where could she go? 

She had no money. No connections. And it was already almost December - winter was coming. Rey, accustomed to a lifetime spent in the hot desert, was already beginning to shiver in the cold autumn breeze. Unless she somehow managed to get a roof over her head, she knew that she would likely freeze to death on the streets once the snows came.

No, it was better to bide her time and play along for now. She would be the most obedient geisha trainee (or maid, if it came to that) that the okiya had ever purchased. And once the time was ripe - perhaps after she had found a friend to shelter her, or had saved up or stolen enough money to fund her escape... 

Her mind made up, Rey bit back a sigh and got out of the car, following behind Unkar Plutt. 

Just as they were about to enter the okiya, the door swung open, and Rey found herself standing in front of an exquisitely beautiful geisha. 

The lday was dressed in a kimono that was lovelier than anything that Rey had ever seen before, so gorgeous that it took Rey's breath away. Her kimono was embroidered with silvery koi fish with golden orange patches, each fish standing out brightly against the pale, watery blue silk. The obi, cinched tightly around the geisha's waist, was also a beautiful complementary orange-gold, embroidered at the edges with pale blue and shiny golden thread. 

Raising her eyes to the geisha's face, Rey saw that her face was painted a creamy white, made up so that each of her delicate features was highlighted and accented to the best effect. Her hair, pulled back into twin braided buns at the side of her head and threaded through with intricate golden ornaments, gleamed like dark lacquered wood under the flickering lantern flame. 

The geisha was truly a vision of perfection. Forgetting herself, Rey's mouth fell open as she gasped openly in surprise. 

The lady's eyes flickered quickly over Rey, taking in her shabby clothing, her disheveled appearance and her dazed expression. 

A corner of the geisha's mouth twisted delicately downwards. 

"I'd like to be on my way," she said coldly, making no move to step aside. 

Rey felt heat rise to her cheeks in embarrassment. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, ducking out of the lady's way. 

Head held high, the petite geisha stepped out of the doorway, gliding past Rey without a second glance, as if Rey was beneath her notice. 

That was Rey's first encounter with Leia Organa, one of the most renowned geisha in D'Qar - and the woman who would be making her life hell in the days to come. 

Though Rey didn't know it at that time, of course. She simply watched in awe as the geisha floated delicately down the street, head tilted up so that the long strands of golden ornaments cascaded like tiny waterfalls from the twin buns in her hair, chiming faintly with each step.

"You're finally here!" a voice exclaimed from behind Rey.

Rey turned around and came face to face with a tiny, wizened old woman. Her face was so wrinkled that she looked ancient, and her skin was so tan that it was almost an orange-brown hue, just like the pages of the ancient books that Rey occasionally came across in the Ruins. Rey had taught herself to read from those books, and she was very fond of the small collection that she had managed to scavenge. 

Of course, she would never be able to see those books again. That thought brought about another pang of heartbreak. 

Despite her advanced age, the woman descended briskly from the steps and walked right up to Rey. She was so short that she had to peer upwards to look Rey in the face. Still, her eyes were kind, and when she took Rey's cold hands in her own, Rey finally felt some warmth break through the ice surrounding her heart.

"I'll take her in," the little old woman said. "You can leave her to me."

Rey did not spare a single backward glance towards Unkar Plutt as she followed the old lady into the okiya.

 

* * *

 

"My name is Maz," the little old woman said to Rey, as they made their way through the simply furnished house. "Maz Kanata. You can call me Maz."

"I'm Rey," Rey said softly. "Just Rey."

"Well, Rey, you're a very pretty girl, but I think I better get you cleaned up first before you meet Mother. You stink of sweat! And you're tracking sand throughout the house too - you're going to have to clean all that up later. Here, this way."

Maz led Rey towards the back of the house. She slid open the back door, and Rey stepped out of the okiya into a tiny courtyard surrounded on all sides by high stone walls.

Maz walked over to a little well situated at a corner of the courtyard and began cranking the handle, grunting occasionally with strain. 

"Let me help you," Rey offered automatically. 

"No need, Rey, just stay where you are. Start getting undressed," Maz ordered.

Rey's mouth fell open. "W-what?" 

"You need a bath, girl! You have to look your best before Mother sees you. She only picks the prettiest girls to train as geisha. Or do you just want to slave your entire life away here? Like me?" Maz laughed wryly.

That made sense, Rey supposed. But...

"I have to bathe out here in the open?" Rey asked in disbelief.

Maz shrugged. "We all do that."

Sighing, Rey began to unwind her arm wraps, letting them fall in a pile on the ground. Goosebumps immediately rose on her bare arms as they were exposed to the cold autumn chill. Her utility belt went next as she unwound it from her waist with slightly trembling fingers.

Rey hesitated a little before she slid her brown tunic off her shoulders and tugged her thin white singlet over her head. Finally, she undid the laces of her stiff brown pants and, blushing, let them puddle around her ankles.

Now naked, Rey stood shivering in the centre of the empty courtyard. She felt cold all over - except her face, which was so flushed with heated embarrassment that it had to be the same colour as the setting sun.

"Don't be shy, it's nothing I haven't seen before," Maz reassured her as she set down the full wooden bucket. She dipped a cloth in the water, wrung it dry and began scrubbing Rey's back.

Rey let out an undignified squeak at the feeling of the cold wet cloth against her skin. "I can do this myself," she protested.

Maz ignored her. "Lift up your arms."

Rey gave in and did as she was told, lifting her arms above her head. "So what sort of girls does Mother like?" she asked curiously.

A twinkle came into Maz's eye. "Oh-ho, I can already tell that you're a bright one. Looking out for yourself already! Well, listen carefully. Mother used to be a geisha too, but she's retired now. She was once one of the most popular geisha in Coruscant - wealthy and powerful men would travel from all over the country to meet the famed Padme Amidala, the prettiest woman in D'Qar. So Mother knows  _exactly_  what type of girl will succeed as a geisha. Pretty girls, of course. But also girls with  _spirit._ Any girl can look good, but you need  _charm_  and  _spirit_  to entice men. Oh, and she only wants obedient girls. Girls who won't run off and waste the money invested in their training."

Rey automatically frowned upon hearing that. Then, remembering herself, she tried to smooth out her expression.

"I'm very obedient," she assured Maz, hoping that Maz hadn't caught sight of her frown.

"Oh, don't lie to me. I know that look," Maz said knowingly. "When you've lived as long as I have, you start to see the same eyes in different people. You're a runner - I know the type. You're probably already making plans for how to slip away and return home."

Rey sighed. "I don't have a home any more," she confessed. "I used to live with my parents in Jakku, but they sold me to this place. I have nowhere to return to."

"An unfortunately common tale," Maz said sympathetically. She patted Rey's shoulder comfortingly, then began lathering soap through her hair. "Don't ever weep over them, Rey. The past is the past. The belonging you seek does not lie behind you. It lies ahead. Move forward, always."

Rey swallowed. Despite Maz's advice, she could feel the beginnings of tears burn in the corners of her eyes.

Maz's hand tightened on Rey's shoulder. "And no matter what happens to you here,  _do not_ try to run away. If you're caught, Mother will never invest a single credit in your training again. Who would waste money on a girl who runs away? You'll have to be a maid forever. And if you successfully escape, Mother will punish the rest of us for not keeping an eye on you. Your debts will be added to the rest of ours. No one here is ever going to help you to escape."

"But that's not fair!" Rey protested, outraged. "How can she punish everyone else for something that I did?"

"It's what it is," Maz said grimly. "So don't even think about trying to leave."

She finished up and began to towel Rey dry, as Rey thought it over, her heart sinking.

What was she going to do?

"Don't think about it too much," Maz advised Rey as she began to dress her in a simple brown kimono. "First things first - just try and focus on impressing Mother. Let's go."

Biting her lip, Rey obediently followed behind Maz, her heart pounding with anticipation and dread. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Re: Leia - Leia will be the major antagonist in this story. In the original Memoirs of a Geisha, the main antagonist is an older female geisha who is the "queen bee" of the okiya (Hatsumomo). The only major female SW character in her age range is Leia, so I've decided that Leia will be the antagonist. 
> 
> 2\. The okiya is also run by an older woman who is a retired geisha (Mother). I've decided to go with Padme for this, because if Padme survived the PT, she would also be in the right age range. Also, I thought it would be cute to have Leia call Padme "Mother" - we never got to see that in the movies!
> 
> \-- *Though I'd like to clarify that in this fic, Padme and Leia are not actually related. They aren't related to Kylo either. 
> 
> Thank you all for reading! ❤


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The following chapter contains a non-consensual touching scene (virginity check). Please be warned.

 

Maz led the way through the okiya. Her feet, clad in simple white socks, made no sound as she padded over the tatami floors. 

She paused outside a room and knocked once on the sliding door, taking care to avoid hitting the translucent paper stretched over its wooden frame.

"Mother?" Maz called out. 

The door slid open, and a girl poked her head out.

Rey blinked. That couldn't possibly be Mother - that girl looked to be only around Rey's age. Her hair and eyes were dark and shiny, and her face was plump and almost perfectly round. She glanced curiously from Maz to Rey. 

"Rose, I want to see Mother," Maz said to the young girl.

"Shhh. Mother is in a bad mood," Rose whispered. "You must have heard her quarreling with Leia just now. Whatever it is, can't it wait until tomorrow?"

Rey swallowed. This didn't sound good.

"I have the new girl, Rey, with me," Maz said. "Mother will want to see what she bought."

Rose pursed her lips nervously as she thought it over, her pink tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth. As Rey soon learnt, doing this thing with her tongue was a habit for Rose. With her soft, round face and that tongue curling out of the corner of her mouth like a stem, Rey was strongly reminded of the pumpkins that Unkar Plutt had once managed to somehow procure from the city. The other traders had fussed and fought over the rare shipment of plump, round vegetables with their twisty little stems, while Rey watched from the sidelines with bemusement. 

Rey had never imagined that she would meet a person who so resembled one of those pumpkins. She tried to hold back a secret smile.

"Oh, very well," Rose finally said with a shrug. She slid the door open and turned around to call over her shoulder, "Mother! Maz is here with the new girl."

Rey followed Maz into the small room. There was a small, knee-high brown lacquered table in the centre of the room. A woman was sitting at the table with her knees tucked beneath her, bent over a thick book filled with columns of numbers. She did not lift her head as Maz and Rey entered. 

"Mother, the new girl is here," Maz said, giving Rey a little shove forward. "This is Rey of Jakku. Rey, bow to Mother."

Rey stumbled forward. Hurriedly, she got on her knees and bowed her head towards the woven tatami floor. An earthy, grassy smell hit the back of her nose.

There was a shuffling of papers before Mother finally put the book down and lifted her head. "Get up, girl. Let me take a look at you."

Rey straightened up, but averted her eyes from Mother. Nervous butterflies fluttered in the pit of her stomach.

Up close, Rye could see that Mother's face was painted the same creamy white as Leia's. Even her lower lip had been painted white, save for a single stripe of stark red down the centre of her bottom lip. The white makeup couldn't completely hide the wrinkles on her aged face, but Rey could tell that Mother must have been a great beauty in her youth. Age had put lines on her face, but it not diminished the brightness of her eyes, the sharpness of her nose, or the shapely little mouth that was now curled up in a calculating smile.

"She's too skinny, but I suppose she'll be pretty enough once she's been made up," Mother announced to the room at large. "Undress," she ordered Rey.

Rey froze. _In front of all these people?_  She shot a panicked, helpless look at Maz.

"I helped her to shower just now," Maz said to Mother. "The girl is healthy and unblemished."

Mother considered it for a long moment, while Rey trembled on her knees. 

"Fine," Mother eventually said. "Is she still a virgin? I don't suppose you've checked for that too?"

"No, Mother," Maz admitted.

"I'm a virgin," Rey whispered. 

"I'm not just going to take your word for it," Mother said. "Maz, Rose, hold her down."

Rey tried to stand up and back away, but it was difficult to get up from the unfamiliar kneeling position. While she was still struggling to her feet, Maz and Rose each grabbed hold of one of her arms. Helplessly, she kicked her legs and twisted in their grasp, but Maz had the wiry strength of an old woman, and Rose's grip on her upper arm was unshakeable.

"Stop struggling!" Maz whispered to Rey, under her breath. "You'll make things worse for yourself. Just bear with it."

Tears burned in Rey's eyes as Mother approached and knelt down between her spread legs, rolling up the skirt of her kimono. Rey hastily tried to bring her knees together, but Mother slapped her hard on her inner thigh, eliciting a squeak of pain. Her throat was tight from holding back tears.

Mother spread her thighs apart forcefully, then reached her fingers between Rey's legs. Horror kept Rey frozen in place. She cried out loud from the burn of the intrusion, then yelped again when Mother gave her what felt like a pinch, deep within her. A tear trickled down her face. 

"She's still intact," Mother said, gesturing for Rose and Maz to release Rey. 

"I already told you!" Rey cried, her face  burning with shame and indignation. She desperately smoothed her kimono down and crossed her legs together. Now that she had started crying again, she found that she couldn't stop the tears from flowing. 

"Stop crying, girl," Mother said coldly. "Men will do all that to you and worse, in time to come."

With an effort, Rey swallowed back her tears. She glared hatefully at Mother, Maz and Rose. 

"Now that's more like it," Mother said approvingly. "Yes, I like that look in your eyes. Keep that fire within you. You'll need it to survive in our world. I'm sure that you will make a fine geisha. Maybe you'll even be as good as me, one day." 

Mother sat down again at the table, tucking her knees beneath her, and bent over her accounts book again. 

"Rose, show Rey to her room," Mother said dismissively, not bothering to look up from the book. "From tomorrow onwards, she'll start training together with you."


	4. Chapter 4

 

 

"This way," Rose said.

With no other choice, Rey followed behind Rose on shaky legs. Outrage and indignation boiled within her with each step that she took, the memory of the humiliating virginity inspection still fresh in her mind. She could almost feel Mother's wrinkled old fingers gripping her thighs, spreading her legs apart -

Some of Rey's anger must have shown through in her demeanour, because Rose stopped suddenly and turned around to face Rey, looking very worried.

"Are you....are you mad at me, Rey?" Rose asked nervously. "Please don't be. I had to do what Mother said, or she'd beat me. You know, she did the same thing to me when I first got here." Rose shuddered, the corners of her mouth twisting downwards.

Rey sighed, part of her anger fading away.

Rose was, after all, in the same situation as her - just another young girl, bought by Mother to serve the okiya. It was pointless to be angry with her. One day, she might even be in the same position as Rose too.

Rey shook her head. "I don't blame you. I know that you had no choice," she said.

A relieved smile spread across Rose's face, "Great! When I first heard that Mother had bought a new girl, I was really hoping that we could be friends! There are only a few people here - Naboo Okiya is really small, not like some other houses which have hundreds of geisha and maids. There wasn't anyone else my age here, and I didn't really have anyone to talk to. I mean, Maz is usually quite nice to me, but I try and avoid Leia and Mother as much as possible. And there's only so much that you can talk to Maz about, you know? I was so glad to hear that you would be joining us. And - "

Rose, clearly pleased now that she knew Rey wasn't angry with her, chattered on and on as they made their way through the narrow passages of the _okiya_. It was almost as if a dam had burst as her words kept spilling out.

In an effort to distract herself from her predicament, Rey let Rose's words wash over her without paying too much attention to any particular thing that Rose was talking about.

But despite this, she couldn't keep her mind from dwelling on her current situation.

At least Mother has agreed to let her train as a geisha. Rey didn't know what that would entail, but in any event, that had to be better than becoming a maid. However, she was still trapped in the okiya with no hope of escape. And she would never see her home again. Never see her parents again...

"We're here!" Rose announced, breaking Rey out of her melancholy thoughts.

Rose came to a stop before two small rooms right at the end of a narrow corridor. "This is my room, and you can take the one opposite me," she said, gesturing towards the little room.

Rey shrugged indifferently.

Rose continued, "Maz sleeps down the corridor from us, closer to the kitchen - you need to keep the volume down at night, or she won't be happy with us. She wakes up at five o'clock in the morning to start on her chores, but we get to sleep in for another hour or so. I'll wake you up tomorrow and we can go to the training school together. Oh, but it's going to be your first day! We should leave a bit earlier, so we'll have time to pray at the temple first before class."

Rey blinked. "Pray?"

"For good luck!" Rose said, as if it were obvious.

Rey frowned. Back in Jakku, she had never gone to the temple. Her parents weren't religious, and Rey didn't see the point in asking the deities for help, especially when it was clear that the only person who could help her was herself. No god or goddess had ever put food on the table - only her own hard work did.

But as it turned out, geisha were extremely superstitious. Mother, Leia and even Rose, who was only an apprentice, would not make any major decisions without first going to the temple to pray for good fortune, or consulting the almanac to see if it was an auspicious day to take action. Leia would not even leave the okiya without making Maz strike a small flintstone against on her back, showering her with sparks to ensure safe travels.

All of this puzzled Rey deeply. However, she decided that going to the temple couldn't possibly hurt.

"All right," Rey said. "Could you please wake me up tomorrow morning?"

"Sure. Good night, Rey!"

Rey gave Rose a small, tired smile. "Good night, Rose."

Rey stepped into her room, shutting the sliding door behind her.

Her room was small and bare, with only a cupboard and a small, knee-high chest of drawers in the corner for storage. On top of the drawers was a small oil lantern, the room's only provider of warmth and light.

Rey walked over to the cupboard and pulled out a futon and a thin, white quilt. She unrolled her bedding on the tatami floor, then blew out the flame in the lantern before curling up under the quilt and closing her eyes.

_One day at a time._

 

* * *

 

"Wake up, Rey!"

Rey groaned, blinking the sleep from her eyes as she sat up. Immediately, she began to shiver once she wriggled out from underneath the blanket.

It was freezing _-_ colder than the desert nights, if such a thing was possible. Rey was used to waking up at dawn to beat out the other Jakku scavengers for the best spots in the Ruins, but she wasn't accustomed to the bitterly cold dawns of Coruscant autumns - cold that would only worsen as the days passed and the seasons changed from fall to winter.

"Coming, Rose," Rey called, rubbing her own arms to try to work up some warmth. It didn't really work. She desperately wished that she still had her arm wraps. Briefly, Rey wondered whether she would be able to convince Maz to return them to her.

"Hurry up!" Rose said. "You know it takes a long time to get ready - oh, wait, you probably don't know that, sorry. Maz needs to help us to put on our kimono - that takes at least a good fifteen minutes. And Uncle Chewie also needs to style our hair before we leave."

"Chewie? That's a strange name," Rey said.

Rose giggled. "His surname is Chew, but we all call him Uncle Chewie. He's really nice, and he has decades of experience doing hair for geisha. He comes over every week to style Leia's hair for her, and she's supposed to keep her hairstyle intact for the rest of the week. Leia even sleeps on a special pillow which keeps her head and neck elevated so that she doesn't flatten her hair and ruin it while she's sleeping."

Rey wrinkled her nose. "That sounds so uncomfortable."

"Oh, we don't have to do that yet," Rose assured her. "We're still apprentices, so a simple bun or braid is fine for us. But I always ask Uncle Chewie to do my hair too when he comes over, just for the fun of it."

"Well, all right," Rey said. She raised a hand to touch her hair, which was a rough and tangled mess from a sleepless night spent tossing and turning about. Rey tried to work out the tangles as best as she could with only her fingers, thinking back to the elaborate hairstyles she had seen other geisha wear and wondering what sort of hairstyle Uncle Chew would give her. "Alright, I'm ready. Let's go downstairs."

"Aren't you excited?" Rose asked, practically beaming at Rey as they walked down the stairs. "Your first day as an apprentice geisha!"

 _Excited_ wasn't the word that Rey would use to describe her current mood - _apprehensive_ , _resigned_ or _resentful_ would be much more appropriate. But Rose had been so friendly that Rey didn't want to bring down her mood. "I'm just nervous, that's all. What's going to happen today?" Rey asked.

"Oh, you mean after we leave the temple? We'll go to the training school with all the other apprentices. There are classes on singing, dancing, tea ceremony, playing the shamisen..."

Rey's eyes widened in horror. She had never danced or played a musical instrument in her life.

The look on Rey's face made Rose laugh.”Don’t worry. I was terrible at the beginning too. You'll catch up.”

Rey seriously doubted it, but she kept her mouth shut.

 

* * *

 

The living room of the okiya was packed with activity.

Leia sat regally upright in a straight-backed wooden chair, her head tilted slightly back. Behind her, a tall, bulky, middle-aged man with wild, shaggy hair was delicately combing her sleek brown hair into an elaborate updo, securing it in place with beautiful jade hairpins. To their left, Maz was laying out two sets of kimono on the low wooden table - twin garments patterned in blue and gold for both Rey and Rose.

Upon hearing Rey and Rose enter the room, Leia lowered her head towards the mirror. Her eyes met Rey’s in the mirror’s reflection, and her pretty mouth curled up into a delicate little sneer.

“We’re done, Chewie. Let me up. I can’t stand the company here.”

Chewie made a small noise of protest, gesturing with a hairpin in his hand. But Leia had already stood up, pushing her chair backwards so quickly that Chewie had to jump out of the way so that his feet wouldn’t be run over. She brushed past Rey with her nose in the air.

Rey looked down at her feet, feeling her heart sink. She couldn’t understand what she had done to make Leia so hostile towards her. Could Leia _still_ be angry about Rey blocking her path last night? But that had been such a trivial little thing...

As if reading Rey’s mind, Maz shook her head. “She’s just like that, Rey. Don’t take it to heart. Why don’t you sit down and let Chewie make you pretty?”

“You can go first, Rey,” Rose said, gesturing towards the chair in front of Chewie.

Rey said down gingerly, pulling her chair up towards the mirror. There were dark circles under her eyes, which were rimmed with red. Strands of dishevelled brown hair stuck out in all directions.

Chewie shook his head, clicked his tongue once and began working his big ivory comb through the tangles. Rey winced at the slight tugging on her scalp.

“Of course I usually comb my hair every morning,” Rey said, slightly defensively. “It doesn't usually look like this. But I don’t have a comb in my room, and I didn’t have time to bring anything from home with me when I was _sold_.”

“ _GROOOAHGHA_ ,” Chewie growled.

Rey started, her eyes widening in shock.

 _“He’s mute_ ,” Rose’s reflection mouthed at Rey in the mirror. She opened her mouth, pointed at her tongue and did a little pantomime of shaking her head. “ _Can’t speak._ ”

“Oh - I'm so sorry,” Rey said wretchedly, feeling her face heat up with embarrassment. “I didn’t know.”

Thankfully, Chewie didn't seem to be offended. The big man smiled at her and patted her reassuringly on her shoulder before working on her hair again.

Now that the tangles had been combed out, Chewie carefully parted her hair into three neat sections down the back of her head. He tied each section of hair back into a loose little bun, then threaded a hairstick studded with a polished cerulean stone through each of the buns to hold it in place.

 _“Warghhh,”_ Chewie grunted, patting Rey on the shoulder to indicate that he was done. He picked up a large hand mirror, angling it so that Rey could see the back of her head.

Rey raised a hand, running her fingers gingerly over her three buns, being careful not to pull any strands of hair loose. This was a very unique hairstyle - one that she had never seen before on any woman in Jakku. The three loose buns, coupled with the few stray strands of hair framing her face, gave Rey a markedly casual look, so different from the severe, neat buns and elaborate styles that she had seen the other geisha wear.

Her new hairstyle was almost _too_ casual.

Rebellious.

Carefree.

Studying her new hairstyle in the mirror, a real smile spread across Rey’s face for the first time since that awful night. “Thank you, Chewie. I love it,” she said quietly.

Chewie returned her warm smile. “ _Grahhhh_ , ” he grunted.

But Rey was no longer shocked by the strange noises that Chewie made, and she could detect the warmth and sincerity in the man’s tone.

“You look really cute, Rey!” Rose gushed.

“Very nice,” Maz agreed. “Come here, I’ll help you get dressed.” She beckoned Rey towards her, holding out the kimono in her hands.

The kimono was made of silky, midnight-blue cloth with a satin sheen, with plum blossoms embroidered in gold thread around the hem and sleeves. It wasn’t as grand as the ones worn by full-fledged geisha like Leia, but it was still clearly expensive, and much fancier than anything else that Rey had ever worn in her life.

Maz carefully guided her arms through the sleeves of the kimono, and Rey was surprised by how heavy the fabric was as it hung off her shoulders. The sleeves were long and flowy, almost reaching to the ground as she dropped her arms. The excess fabric of the kimono was tucked and folded beneath the long golden obi that Maz wrapped around her waist. Tying, clasping, folding, and tucking, Maz expertly secured everything in place.

“Now for your makeup,” Maz said.

To her relief, Rey found that she didn’t have to wear the solid white full-face makeup yet. All Maz did was pluck her brows, powder her face, line her eyes, and paint her a single, solid dark red stripe vertically down the centre of her bottom lip. She finished off by inking a small red flower in the centre of Rey’s forehead - the _huadian._

The final step in this entire lengthy process was for Rey to put on her _okobo_ \- tall wooden shoes that prevented the sleeves of her kimono from dragging on the ground as she walked. Maz knelt down to help Rey slide her feet into the shoes, as Rey was unable to bend down comfortably with all the fabric in the way.

At the end of all this, Rey felt mentally exhausted, even though she had done nothing more than to stand in place while Chewie and Maz fussed around her. She raised a hand to rub at her forehead.

“Don’t do that!” Maz scolded. “You’ll smudge your makeup.”

Rey winced. It was going to take quite a while for her to get used to all this.

Hesitantly, Rey tried to take a step forward, wobbling precariously on her high wooden shoes. She desperately missed the practical leather boots that she had left behind in Jakku. Now she understood why the other geisha took such small steps when they walked - if she tried to take any large strides in these tall shoes, she was certain that she would fall over immediately and make a complete fool of herself.

“Let’s go, Rey,” Rose said.

 

* * *

 

Rey gritted her teeth. “How much further?” she asked.

The fall scenery in Coruscant was beautiful - ginkgo trees, their crowns a fiery orange-gold lined each sidewalk, showering their leaves on passersby with each light breeze - but Rey was too tired to appreciate the view. Walking without falling over took a lot of concentration, and her ankles were already starting to hurt from the heavy weight of her solid wooden shoes.

“It’s right ahead,” Rose said. “There!”She pointed towards the temple at the end of the street.

The sloping, tiered roofs of the temple rose above the shorter buildings surrounding it. At the corner of each curved roof was an intricately carved jade dragon, roaring its defiance to the skies.

Rey breathed a sigh of relief. _Finally!_

She quickened her pace as much as possible, eager to get indoors and take off those damned shoes. Behind her, Rose hurried to catch up.

_Almost there…_

In her eagerness to enter the temple, Rey didn’t see the raised step at the temple entrance.

“Ah!”

Rey’s foot caught on the edge of the high step. Losing her balance, she tripped and fell forward, smacking right into the broad chest of the man exiting the temple.

“Hey, watch where you’re going,” an annoyed voice said. Placing his hands on her shoulders, the man steadied Rey upright.

Rey looked up, eyes wide, an apology beginning to form on her lips.

Her voice died in her throat as she lifted her eyes to the man’s face.

Pale skin, appearing all the more luminous when contrasted with his messy dark hair.

Dark, intense eyes, shadowed with some unknowable feeling.

Sensitive lips, pink and bowed, now curling up at the corner in a small, quizzical smile.

An electric jolt seemed to pass through Rey as the man’s tongue flicked out to wet his lips.

The world around her seemed to fall into a hush.

Then -

Her mind _leapt._

It was as if something had awakened deep within her soul. A force, extending from where her trembling hand was now resting on the man’s chest, outwards towards the entire universe.

A sense of belonging, of rightness. Of connection made.

A whisper, from deep within her mind -

_Light._

_Darkness._

_A balance._

Rey blinked, stunned, as the connection finally died away.

“ _What_?” The shock made Rey’s voice sound an octave higher than normal.

“Don’t be afraid. I feel it too,” the man said quietly.

“Oh no! Chairman! We’re so sorry!” Rose’s distressed voice came from behind Rey. She had finally caught up with them. Rose nudged Rey and whispered, “Rey, apologise to Chairman Solo.”

“It was nothing,” the Chairman said. His dark eyes looked piercingly through Rey again.

“I -” Rey was still speechless, her mind reeling from shock.

 _Nothing?_ That definitely hadn’t been _nothing_. She had _felt_ something just now - some sort of mystical connection, some sort of energy - a force - that she had never felt before.

But Rey couldn’t seem to get any words out.

“My apologies,” the Chairman finally said, sounding slightly disappointed. “Perhaps I misunderstood. I’ll be on my way.”

“We’re so sorry,” Rose said again, as the Chairman brushed past them.

“...Wait!” Rey finally got out, but it was too late. The Chairman was already out of earshot.

Rey watched his tall figure stride off into the distance, feeling an unexpected sense of loss.

_What was that?_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been receiving some harassment about this fic from certain bored tumblr users, and I just want to say - if you don't like my fic, DON'T READ IT. I'm not going to give up writing, so you can just stop wasting your own time and mine by making nasty posts or sending nasty asks.
> 
> I've put a lot of thought into the setting, plot, characterization, etc of this fic. I'm happy to discuss WHY I've written certain things in a certain way, BUT that does not mean that I'm going to change what I've already written or what I plan to write. Everything has already been outlined anyway, and I don't intend to change it to suit some asshole's preferences. If you want something written down in exactly the way you imagine, go ahead and write your own fic. 
> 
> I've also made it clear in the tags and the A/N at the very beginning that this is a FANTASY STORY. It isn't meant to be an accurate representation of any real-world culture or history. If you're looking for some sort of educational textbook on geisha, go to the library or Wikipedia instead. 
> 
> Also, Rey and Kylo are going to FUCK in this fic because this is a REYLO FIC. If you want a story about geisha who don't fuck anybody, may I suggest you WRITE IT YOUR DAMN SELF, instead of reading a Reylo fic and then complaining about Rey fucking Kylo? Seriously?
> 
> Thanks! :/


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title drop! Sorry for the delay in updating - I'm also juggling another fic. 
> 
> After some thought, I’ve decided to cut out all explicit references to any particular god, goddess or religion. So this is just a temple to the Force where people come to pray and seek fortunes.

 

“Who was that?” Rey said to Rose. The inexplicable connection she had felt to that man just now was still weighing heavily on her mind.

“Oh no,” Rose groaned. “I can't believe this! You don’t even know who he was? That was Ben Solo! The Chairman of the First Order! And you almost knocked him down!”

“The First Order?” Rey asked, puzzled.

“You haven’t heard of them? They're a private military contractor. _The_ largest private military contractor in all of Coruscant. They supply arms, equipment and a private militia to the government,” Rose explained. “Their higher-ups like to visit the geisha district for some entertainment every few months. Rest and relaxation,” Rose said, her nose wrinkling. “I’ve heard the other girls complain that the First Order men can be quite rowdy.”

“But Ben Solo seemed… nice,” Rey said hesitantly.

“Well, I don’t know. Everyone else tells me that the First Order men are a really nasty bunch. I wouldn’t have thought that their Chairman would be so nice to you… Maybe you just caught him in a good mood?” Rose said. “He probably got a really good fortune right before you bumped into him. _‘Don’t yell at strange girls, and you’ll have good luck for the rest of the week’_... Oh! We’d better hurry, or we’ll be late for classes. Go on in. Watch your step!”

This time round, Rey was careful to lift her foot high enough to step over the raised doorsill at the entrance to the temple.

The first thing that hit her as she entered the temple grounds was the strong fragrance of incense. A large golden urn stood in the centre of the temple courtyard, with plumes of smoke wafting up from the sticks of incense burning within it towards the cold grey sky.

“Take three sticks,” Rose advised Rey. She gestured towards a shelf, where sticks of carmine incense had been placed.

Rey selected three sticks, then, following Rose, lit her incense sticks from a small flame burning in an oil-filled brazier which had been placed beside the incense shelves. She looked to Rose for guidance again.

Rose clasped her three incense sticks between her palms, then bowed once, facing out towards the courtyard. She then turned and bowed again in the direction of the prayer hall.

Rey followed suit, bowing once outwards and inwards, thinking desperately to herself, “ _If any god or goddess is listening to this…  please, help me. Please, just let me find my way home again.”_

Nothing happened.

No ground-shaking connection. No mystical force. No all-encompassing connection to the universe.

Absolutely nothing remarkable happened.

Rey wasn't sure what exactly she had expected to happen, but certainly not… nothing. Especially not given what had had felt just now, even before entering the temple - that magical connection to _Ben Solo_ , of all people.

Had she done something wrong?

 _Maybe I haven't prayed correctly_ , Rey thought to herself, puzzled. _Did I ask for the wrong thing?_

“Is that it?” she asked Rose quietly, trying to hide her disappointment as they lined up to place their incense sticks in the urn.

“No, that's just the first rite before entering the temple,” Rose said. “We haven't even gone into the main hall yet! And we still need to ask for our fortunes. This way. Oh, and remember to take off your shoes first.”

With a sigh of relief, Rey stepped out off her high wooden shoes. Her thin white socks offered scant protection from the icy cold emanating from the stone tiles, but Rey found that she didn't mind - the cold helped to soothe her sore feet. She wiggled her toes in delight with each step as they entered the main prayer hall.

The sheer amount of noise and commotion she faced took Rey by surprise. The rhythmic clacking of wooden sticks rang out through the hall as kneeling devotees shook bamboo tins filled with prayer lots, hoping to divine an auspicious fortune.

Heads turned in their direction as Rey and Rose made their way towards the far end of the room - geisha, even trainee geisha, were rarely seen before the sun went down. A little boy said to his mother in an audible whisper as Rey and Rose walked past them, “Look, Mama! Geisha! They look like angels!”

Rey felt her entire face heat up with embarrassment. She ducked her head and quickened her steps, trying to avoid meeting anyone’s eyes.

Rose, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy the attention. She preened under the appreciative gazes directed their way, and held her head higher with each step as they traversed the hall.

“Take one of these,” Rose said to Rey, gesturing at the bamboo tins placed on the shelves. Each bamboo tin was filled with numerous flattened sticks.

Rey and Rose each took a bamboo tin from the shelves.

“This is called the _qian_ ,” Rose explained, picking out one of the sticks. Rey could see a number written in ink at the end of each stick. “We're going to _qiu qian_ now - ask for our fortunes. You're supposed to focus on something that you want to know, then shake the bamboo tin until one _qian_ falls out. Then, based on the number written on your _qian_ , you can check your corresponding fortune outside.” She gestured at a large board in the courtyard, with a hundred numbered couplets written on it in calligraphy.

“Oh,” Rey said in realization. 

“This way,” Rose said, leading them to a pair of unoccupied, raised cushions. She got on her knees and Rey followed suit, wincing as she did so. Kneeling in the kimono was extremely cumbersome, as the form-fitting fabric tightened uncomfortably around her knees and thighs.

“Focus on something that you want to know,” Rose advised. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, then began to shake her tin rhythmically.

Something that she wanted?

 _‘How can I escape?’_ was Rey’s immediate thought. “ _I want to go home. I want to see my parents again.”_

...But that prayer hadn’t worked earlier.

Unbidden, an image suddenly rose into Rey’s mind - Ben Solo, looking down at her with his intense dark eyes, his lips curling up into a small smile. That immediate sense of connection she had felt when they touched.

Rey felt a blush rising to her cheeks.

Impulsively, she closed her eyes and thought, “ _Chairman_ _Ben Solo. Will I see him again?”_

Rey began to shake the weighty bamboo tin. The solid heft of it in her palms - the echoing _clack-clack-clack_ as the hundred bamboo _qian_ knocked against each other - all of it was unexpectedly hypnotic. Despite the noise in the prayer hall, it was almost as if a hush had fallen over her mind.

Suddenly, a little wooden stick fell out of the tin.

Rose leaned over towards Rey. “Ooh, what number did you get?”

Rey picked up her _qian_. “Lot sixty-six,” she replied.

Was it her imagination, or had she felt a small _spark_ just now as her fingers clenched over the divination lot?

“I got eighty,” Rose said. “Let's go and check our fortunes outside.”

Rey needed Rose’s assistance to get up after that prolonged period of kneeling. She tried not to hobble too awkwardly as pins and needles spread up her calves.

“You'll get used to it,” Rose assured her as they made their way to the temple’s courtyard.

They stopped before the oracle board - a giant wooden board with a hundred bamboo slats, each inscribed with a different numbered fortune. Rey began scanning the board for number sixty-six.

There!

Her eyes traced over the beautiful calligraphic script of Lot Sixty-six.

> 66.
> 
> 风雨送春归，
> 
> 纷雪迎春到。
> 
> _Soft rains herald the end of winter,_
> 
> _Falling snow welcomes the return of spring._

For the first time since she'd been sold, a small smile of pure joy blossomed on Rey's face.

She would be seeing Ben Solo again, it seemed, when winter turned to spring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS: I’ve taken some artistic liberties in translating the couplet in this chapter - this isn't a literal translation.


	6. Chapter 6

 

Rose beamed at Rey. “I can tell that you got a good fortune! Your eyes are sparkling,” she teased.

Rey felt a flush rise to her cheeks. Had she been that obvious? “Um, well, the fortune said -”

“Don’t tell me what it said!” Rose cut her off hastily. “It’s bad luck! The Force won’t make it come true if you just blurt out all its secrets!”

That was the strangest thing that Rey had ever heard, but she just laughed.

Was it really the Force that she had felt just now when she bumped into Ben Solo at the entrance of the temple? That strangely profound bond that she had felt to that man - the overwhelming depth of connection which had seemed to bind him, her, and the entire universe together?

With a shock, Rey suddenly realized that she didn't even have any idea what the Force actually _was._

“Rose, what exactly is the Force?” Rey asked curiously. “Is it a sort of god? This place is a Force temple, right? But I didn't see any statues of gods or goddesses inside just now.”

“Oh, it's nothing like that!” Rose said. “It's got nothing to do with gods or goddesses. The Force is an old belief - that everything in this world is connected by a mystical energy force, created by all living things. It surrounds us, binds us, and ties everything together. There used to be legends of Force users who could do all sorts of incredible things by manipulating the Force! They could make things move with their minds, see the future, fly, zap you with their third eye…”

Ret snorted. What Rose had described was exactly what she had felt earlier - except for the last part about Force users. That all sounded quite unbelievable.

“Well, that’s just what Maz told me when I asked her,” Rose said. “She’s a big believer in the old ways. But to tell you the truth, I don't really believe in that last bit about Force users either. Actually, fewer and fewer people believe in the Force these days. It mostly just lives on in rituals and sayings. You know, _‘May the Force be with you,’_ and other blessings like that.”

“I see,” Rey murmured. She definitely wasn't a Force user, but she had definitely felt something just then. Maybe she had some sort of Force sensitivity?

But no, that couldn't be it. There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about her, Rey of Jakku, a simple scavenger girl from a backward desert village. If she could sense or use the Force, wouldn’t she have already noticed it before today?

Maybe it was Ben Solo who was the secret Force user instead?

Unbidden, an image flashed into Rey's mind - tall, dark and handsome Ben Solo, filthy rich Chairman of the First Order, using the Force to fly about and zap people with his third eye. Rey bit down hard on her lip, only managing to hold back a giggle with great difficulty.

With an effort, Rey straightened her expression as best as she could. “Shouldn't we be going for class now?”

Rose let out a panicked little gasp. “Oh no! I didn't think that we'd be spending so much time here! Quick, let’s go! The school isn’t that far away. We can still make it in time if we hurry.”

 

* * *

 

The geisha training school was a low, three-storey building constructed in the traditional _shoin-zukuri_ style - square bevelled pillars, shutters of slender, lacquered wooden sliding doors, and a pointed roof with gentle, upward-sweeping curves at all four corners.

Before the school was a beautifully maintained garden, with tall, evergreen pines surrounding a small, clear pond filled with ornamental koi fish. Apprentice geisha, all in their early to mid-teens, milled about in the garden, chattering and gossiping with each other as they waited for today’s class to begin.

Heads turned and conversations paused when Rose and Rey arrived at the last minute, panting and slightly out of breath. The other apprentices turned, almost as one, to stare at the newcomer.

Due to the exorbitant cost of training, supporting and grooming a young girl from a novice to a full-fledged geisha, the madams of the _okiya_ seldom put forth a new apprentice geisha for training. A new apprentice joining the training school was quite an unusual occurrence.

Rey shifted a little, feeling slightly uncomfortable under the coolly assessing stares of so many other apprentice geisha. On some level, she was dimly aware that they were checking out the competition, and she had a sinking feeling that the other girls had looked her over- Rey, with her face flushed from rushing to school, her messy buns trailing strands of loose, escaped hair - and immediately categorized her as _not a threat_.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the chime of a large gong ringing out throughout the school.

As one, the apprentices began to file up the steps, towards the school. Rey and Rose hurried to move along with the crowd.

They entered a large room filled with wooden tables, evenly spaced apart. The tables were so low that the surface of each one only came up to Rey’s knee. A traditional glazed clay tea set was placed at the centre of each table - a plain, solid russet-coloured set, with no glazed patternings on the pot or cups.

Each apprentice knelt down effortlessly before a table, tucking their knees neatly beneath them in the formal _seiza_ position - both knees together, with their ankles turned slightly outwards and the tops of their feet laying flat to the padded tatami floor, toes slightly overlapping. Each of the girls then leaned slightly back so that they were resting on their heels, back straight, but not unnaturally rigid or stiff.

Rey selected an unoccupied table somewhere in the middle of the classroom. Biting her lip, she tried, with difficulty, to copy the kneeling postures of the other girls. She still wasn’t used to sitting on her knees for extended periods. Kneeling for only a brief period at the Force temple was already enough to give her pins and needles. And now she was going to have to maintain this posture for the rest of the day?

Rey _really_ wanted to lean forward and bang her head on the low table before her, but she was aware that the other girls were already judging her. She settled for heaving a small sigh under her breath and wrinkling her nose into a frown.

The latticed wooden door slid open, and a tiny, wrinkled old man in a green robe entered. He was almost completely bald, save for a few thin wisps of white hair on his wrinkled head. The little old man hobbled towards the raised stage at the front of the room, leaning heavily on his curved walking stick as he did so.

Rose leaned over and whispered under her breath to Rey, “That’s Master Yoda! He’s our teacher for _chadou_ \- the tea ceremony. It's the most important part of entertaining guests as a geisha.”

“Good morning, Master Yoda,” the class chanted in unison.

“Good morning, class.” Master Yoda gave a short, formal bow in acknowledgement, before sitting on his knees behind the wooden table on the raised stage. He was so short that even kneeling,

“A new student, we have with us today,” Master Yoda said. His sharp eyes searched through the crowd before they landed on Rey.

The unusual way that he spoke made Rey frown in confusion. Why was Master Yoda talking like that? Was it some kind of joke?

“Go through the entire tea ceremony, we shall. Rey, learn. Everyone else, _recall_ what you’ve learnt. Watch. Watch!”

Picking up the flask of boiling water, Master Yoda poured the hot water over the entire tea tray, thoroughly soaking the teapot and the tea cups. The clay tea set darkened upon contact with the hot water. Master Yoda didn’t stop pouring until the tea set had turned a uniform dark brown.

Next, he picked up a flat, rounded wooden scoop. “The _cha shi._ For scooping tea leaves _,”_ he said.

He carefully spooned a pinch of tea leaves into the warmed teapot, then poured the boiling water from the flask into the teapot. To Rey’s surprise, Master Yoda didn’t shut the lid immediately to allow the tea to steep - instead, he grasped the teapot by the handle and poured out the first brewing.

“First flush, poured away. Always!” Master Yoda said. “Wash the leaves, we must. Wash, heat, and let the leaves begin to bloom before we steep.”

He added the boiling water to the teapot again, then, finally, placed the lid over the opening of the teapot.

“Wait now, we must,” he said, settling back. “Three minutes, for green teas. Five, for black. Today’s tea leaves are _jinxuan oolong_ leaves - golden daylily. How long do we have to wait?”

Master Yoda’s gaze swept the room again, seeking a student to answer his question. Rey tried desperately not to catch his eyes, but to her great annoyance, he pointed directly at her.

“You. Rey. How long?”

Well, Rey supposed that she had a fifty percent chance of picking the right answer. “Five minutes?” she guessed.

“Three minutes,” Master Yoda corrected with a frown.

The class tittered. Rey gritted her teeth and clenched her hands into fists beneath her table.

They waited in silence for the rest of those three minutes as the tea steeped. Rey shifted about minutely, trying to remove some of the pressure on her knees by wriggling.

One of the girls other girls caught sight of her shifting and raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow at Rey. Rey gritted her teeth again in annoyance, but finally gave up and stopped fidgeting. She knew that she would eventually have to learn how to get comfortable kneeling like this.

After what seemed to be an interminably long time, Master Yoda finally picked up the teapot. He flicked his right sleeve back with his left hand, then gracefully poured the delicately coloured pale brown tea into the little tea cups.

“ _Duan cha_ ,” he said. “Now, serve the tea in the cup to your customer.”

With an elegant motion, Master Yoda lifted the tiny cup in his hands and offered it in the direction of the audience.

 _That didn’t seem so difficult._ Rey tried to commit all the steps she had just seen to memory.

“Now, your turn,” Master Yoda said.

He straightened up from his kneeling position. Moving surprisingly fast for such an elderly man, the old man stood up and made his way down from the platform, as everyone started to bend over their tea sets. Master Yoda began walking down the rows of tables, occasionally pausing to correct a student.

Rey ducked her head as the teacher drew closer to where she was sitting. Which came first?

_Oh, right. Washing the tea set -_

She picked up the flask of boiling water and doused her tea set with it. A couple of water droplets puddled on the table.

_Oh no._

Rey discreetly tried to wipe up the spill with the long, flowing sleeve of her kimono.

Yoda’s curved stick suddenly descended on her knuckles with a sharp rap, making Rey yelp, more out of surprise than pain.

“No! Ruin your kimono, you will,” Master Yoda chided. “Carry on.”

Rey hesitated, trying to recall the other steps that Master Yoda had performed. “Wait, give me a minute. I need to try and remember -”

“Do, or do not. There is no try,” Master Yoda interrupted. He slammed the tip of his walking stick into the ground to emphasize his point, causing Rey to startle at the sharp, resounding _thunk_ of wood meeting wood.

Biting her lip, Rey unscrewed the lid of the bamboo container holding the tea leaves. The light, almost-floral smell of the _jinxuan oolong_ tea leaves immediately wafted up to meet her, but Rey was so stressed that she wasn’t in the right frame of mind to appreciate the fragrance. She hastily scooped a small pile of tea leaves into the teapot, then put the lid on for it to steep.

“No! Pour out the first flush!”

_Oops._

Rey scrambled to pour out the first flush of tea. Unfortunately, she somehow managed to wet the dangling sleeve of her kimono in the process.

“Pull up your sleeve,” Master Yoda said.

_Couldn’t he have mentioned that earlier?_

Rey made to roll up her sleeve, but was interrupted by another rap off Master Yoda’s stick.

“Don’t pull your sleeve all the way up! A servant, are you? A maid? No! A _geisha,_ you are. Pull it back gently. Delicately. Show the customer the underside of your arm.”

Rey felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment. She tried to do as instructed, but had an uncomfortable feeling that she was just making a fool of herself.

Master Yoda made her repeat the motion three more times before he was finally satisfied. “Work on it,” Master Yoda said finally, before turning away.

Rey exhaled in relief before turning back to the damned tea set. Who knew that the simple act of pouring tea could be so complicated?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Explanation of shoin-zukuri 書院造 architecture: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoin-zukuri>
> 
> \- Explanation of seiza 正座 sitting style: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiza>
> 
> \- Explanation of chadou 茶道 tea ceremony: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_tea_ceremony>
> 
> Note: The tea ceremony that Rey learns in class is actually the Chinese tea ceremony, not the Japanese tea ceremony. Both versions are kind of similar, but I’m going with the Chinese version because **1**. personal preference: I prefer Chinese tea to matcha/sencha; and **2**. I already know Chinese tea ceremony, so I wouldn’t need to do extra research.
> 
> Lazy writer... :D


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains one scene of physical abuse (one slap). Nothing graphic.

The rest of the classes that day were equally disastrous.

During her _shamisen_ class, try as she might, Rey could only manage to produce horrible screechy twangs from her stringed instrument, a far cry from the beautiful melodies that the rest of the class seemed to be able to produce without effort.

During her singing class, Rey, who had taught herself how to read out of scavenged engineering manuals, found that she was completely illiterate when it came to reading sheet music. She tried her best to mumble along with the rest of the class, but she couldn’t help feeling like she was making an awful mess of it.

And to top it all off, Rey tripped and fall flat on her face in dance class. Unfortunately, she somehow managed to land at such an angle that caused a horizontal rip to appear near the hem of her beautiful kimono.

Gasps of shock rang out throughout the classroom. Kimonos were very expensive, and even the less elaborate kimono worn by apprentice geisha could cost upwards of a month’s salary in credits.

The dance teacher, Madam Jessika Pava, a retired geisha, helped Rey up and patted her on her back, before bending down to inspect the bottom of Rey’s torn kimono. “Just a small tear,” she said calmly, as the rest of the class _tsked_ and shook their heads. “Don’t panic! You can sew it up when you get back to your _okiya_.”

“Thanks,” Rey mumbled, her face burning.

“You should have started your training earlier, dear,” Pava-sensei said quietly, after pulling Rey aside - unlike Master Yoda, she wasn’t in the habit of correcting her students in front of the entire class. “It can be quite hard to pick up all these skills at your age. Most of the other girls here started training when they were twelve. I myself began my training as an apprentice when I was just ten.”

“This wasn't my _choice_ ,” Rey said huffily. “I don't even want to learn any of this! I'd have been perfectly happy to remain a scavenger for the rest of my life!”

Even as she said this, Rey knew that it was a lie. Back in Jakku, there was only one thing that she looked forward to after a hard day of scrabbling about in the ruins - the moment at the end of the day when she could finally lie down and stretch out on the warm desert sands, looking up at the stars. As she watched the brilliant pinpricks burning with cold fire in the night sky, Rey would let her mind wander, dreaming about the day that she would finally save up enough credits to move to the city for good and leave her dead-end village behind.

Ironically, now she had her heart's desire, there was nothing that she wanted more than to go back home to her parents.

“I see,” Pava-sensei said thoughtfully. “Well, if you dislike the classes so much, have you considered asking the madam of your _okiya_ whether you can become a geisha immediately? You don’t actually need to know all the arts to become a geisha. Not every one of us is a full entertainer - there are many geisha, especially those outside of D’Qar, who provide sexual services only.”

Rey's eyes widened in horror. “No!”

“It's a perfectly respectable occupation,” Pava-sensei said reassuringly. “There’s no shame in it. Of course, full geisha earn more, but even the geisha who only provide sexual services can do quite well for themselves. You’re such a pretty girl! The men will be lining up in front of you.”

“I don’t - that’s not -” Rey spluttered. A thousand objections were on the tip of her tongue, but somehow what came out was, “I don’t want to do that either!”

“Then what do you want?” Pava-sensei asked, reasonably, her brow knitted with confusion.

To Rey’s surprise, she found that she had no answer.

 

* * *

 

Rey was silent on the walk back to Naboo Okiya, her mind preoccupied with Pava-sensei’s question. Rose occasionally tried to engage her in conversation but gave up after it was clear that Rey did nothing more than mumble in acknowledgement.

Did she really want to return home to her parents?

Even if she somehow managed to escape from her okiya and make it all the way back to Jakku, wouldn’t her father just sell her again?

Rey sighed heavily and kicked a pebble with her sandal, watching it bounce and tumble down the stony path.

“Don’t! You’ll scrape your shoe,” Rose said urgently. “Mother will make you re-lacquer them again if she catches sight of any scratches. And you already have to mend your kimono…”

Rey settled for frowning thunderously at her feet. All of these innumerable, _idiotic_ restrictions chafed at her spirit. Bowing. Kneeling. Not even being able to walk in the way she wanted to…

Lost in thought, Rey found that they had already somehow reached Naboo Okiya. Tiny Maz Kanata was bent over at the front steps of the Okiya, sweeping away the falling autumn leaves with an old broom made of ragged twigs.

“Welcome back, girls,” Maz Kanata said, looking up at Rey and Rose with a smile. “How was your first day of school, Rey?”

It had been such an eventful day that Rey didn’t even know where to begin. The meeting with Ben Solo at the temple, that mystical force she had felt, the disastrous day of classes...

“Um, I guess it was alright,” Rey mumbled. A complete lie. “Could I please borrow a sewing kit? I need to fix my kimono.”

“Are the girls finally back?” An imperious voice rang out from within the okiya - it was Leia Organa. “Rey! Come here! Now!”

Maz, Rose and Rey exchanged looks.

“What does she want?” Rey asked worriedly.

“It’s almost time for her to go out for her evening rounds. She probably just needs someone to touch up her clothes and makeup,” Maz said. “Go on upstairs. Be careful not to make her mad!”

With no other choice, Rey called back out to Leia, “Coming!”

Rey sild her shoes off at the door. As she padded her way up the narrow staircase, her heart began to pound uncomfortably fast. Leia was bad news - she knew it in her bones.

She knocked softly on the sliding door.

“Come in,” Leia ordered.

Rey slid the door open.

Leia’s room was much larger than Rey’s own. As the only fee-earning geisha in the okiya, Leia had the luxury of a fully-furnished room, with a beautiful wooden table, a folding screen with embroidered oriental cranes, and a large, body-length mirror. She even had an actual bed to sleep in instead of a simple futon.

Leia was standing in front of the large mirror, her back towards Rey. She was already dressed in her kimono - a beautiful, black robe made of watered silk, with lotus flowers embroidered in glistening silver thread - but the matching obi around her waist was only half-tied.

Leia held her arms out to the side. “Tie my obi, girl.”

Rey swallowed down her annoyance at the contemptuous tone of Leia’s voice. “Yes, Leia,” she muttered.

She bunched the fabric in her hands, and did her best to tie the heavy belt in an approximation of a simple bow at Leia’s back.

“I see you’ve already managed to ruin your kimono,” Leia observed, looking at their reflections in the mirror. “Stupid, careless girl. Do you think that you can get by on just a pretty face alone? That you don’t have to take care of your attire? Your bearing? Stop slouching! Stand up straight.”

“I need to bend down to tie your stupid belt!” Rey snapped, finally losing her temper. “What’s your problem? Since I got here, you’ve been nothing but nasty towards me! I haven’t even done anything!”

“You see, foolish girl,” Leia whispered, “I know what Mother is up to. She thinks that I’m getting old. She’s looking for another girl to replace me as this okiya’s geisha. That’s why she bought Rose - but it’s clear to all of us that Rose will never make it as a successful geisha. She’s too artless. Too lacking in charm and guile. But you… _ahhhh._ Rey. Rey from the desert, Rey of Jakku. A stupid little sand rat - but even a rat may be full of tricks and surprises. So what do you think, Rey? Do you think _you_ can replace _me?”_

She lifted her head to meet Rey’s gaze, her dark eyes full of hostility and challenge.

Rey was speechless.

With a surprisingly quick motion, Leia twisted her body and stepped away from Rey. Holding Rey’s gaze, Leia deliberately took hold of the left sleeve of her own kimono in her hand, and with a swift violent motion, tore a large, ugly rip in the sleeve of her own expensive robe.

It all happened so quickly that Rey could do nothing but gasp in shock.

Leia immediately started to scream at the top of her lungs.

“Stupid girl! Look what you’ve done! You _ruined_ my kimono! This kimono costs more than ten of you, you worthless brat!”

There was a loud pitter-patter of footsteps rushing up the stairs. The door slid open with a loud screech, revealing Padme Amidala standing in the doorway, her face black with rage.

_“What’s going on?”_

“Mother! Look what that stupid little girl did to my kimono!” Leia cried.

“I didn’t do anything!” Rey shouted. “She’s lying! She ripped it up herself!”

“Why on earth would I do that?” Leia yelled. “Rey did it! That lying little rat! That vindictive, evil little _bitch_ -”

“You fucking _liar_ -”

Mother stepped up to Rey and slapped her sharply across the mouth. Then, she spun around on her heels and the same to Leia.

Rey spluttered in outrage, raising her hand to gingerly touch her face. Pain bloomed across her right cheek.

“Shut up, both of you!” Mother snapped, an expression of thunderous rage on her face. She pointed a finger in Leia’s face. “You. Leia. Explain.”

Leia inhaled sharply, clenching her hands into fists. “The new girl somehow managed to tear her own kimono today! That _stupid, careless -_ well, when I started to tell her off, she lost her temper and ripped my sleeve!”

Mother pointed at Rey. “Now. Your turn.”

“That’s not true!” Rey protested immediately. “She got mad at me for no reason! She said I was trying to replace her, and then she tried to frame me! She just wants to get me in trouble!”

“And how on earth did you tear your own kimono? Leia did it, I suppose?”

“No, I - I fell down at school. That’s all!”

Mother glanced suspiciously between Leia and Rey. Clearly, she wasn’t sure who to believe. Leia’s story was plausible, but Mother was familiar with her temperament, and she wouldn’t put it past Leia to try and frame Rey for something that Rey hadn’t done.

“I don’t care who did it,” Mother snarled finally. “Do you know how expensive these kimono are? Thousands of credits! Much more than your worthless hides! I can buy ten useless serving girls for the price of one kimono! Neither of you are allowed to leave this place until these kimono have been mended!”

“All right,” Leia said coldly. “I’ll ask Maz to cancel all my appointments. I’m just going to sit here and sew all night.”

Mother hesitated, a calculating expression coming over her face. If Leia cancelled her appointments, she would have to refund all of the clients who had already booked Leia for this evening’s entertainment, to say nothing of the reputational cost to the okiya...

“No. Take off your kimono and give it to Rey,” Mother said finally. “Rey, you shouldn’t even have torn your kimono in the first place! These robes cost more than what I paid for you! Fix both of the kimono. That’ll teach you to be more careful. You aren’t allowed to leave the okiya, or go to school, until both of them have been mended.”

Hot, bitter indignation bubbled up within Rey. “But -”

“Do as I say!” Mother snapped.

With a victorious smirk, Leia let her black kimono slide off her shoulders. “Go and ask Rose to bring me a new kimono for the night. Hurry up, or I’ll be late.”

Tears of rage and hatred welled up in Rey’s eyes, but she was determined not to let Leia have the satisfaction of seeing them spill over. She bent down and snatched Leia’s kimono off the floor, storming out of the room.

Too bad the sliding door couldn’t be slammed shut. Rey settled for yanking it hard as she departed.

“Stop stomping around, girl!” Mother called irritably from behind her as Rey angrily made her way down the stairs, half-blinded by tears.


	8. Chapter 8

There was an awful burning feeling in Rey’s chest as she struggled to hold back her tears of rage and frustration.

“Ow!”

Somehow, Rey had somehow accidentally managed to prick her finger _again_ \- the third time this morning. Seething, she quickly dropped the kimono that she was attempting to repair on the ground before the blood on her finger could well up and stain the expensive fabric. The kimono lay crumpled in a sad little pile of cloth before Rey’s feet as she sucked on the tip of her finger, trying to soothe away the pain.

Rey had been working on mending the hem of her own kimono the entire morning, but despite her best efforts, the tear wasn’t even half-mended. Though, that wasn’t entirely accurate - Rey had turned in her first two attempts at mending the tear to Mother, but she had been forced to unpick her hours of hard work and begin again from scratch. Her needlework had not been up to Mother’s exacting standards.

(“Look at these sloppy stitches!” Mother had shouted at Rey as she brought the mended kimono to her. “This isn't a robe for some desert rat! This is supposed to be a geisha’s kimono - how can you possibly go out dressed like this?”

“But nobody will be looking at the _hem_ of my robe,” Rey had protested.

Mother’s response had been a sneer, and an order to unpick each and every painstaking stitch and begin again.)

Rey sighed and stood up, stretching her arms up to the sky. Her back cricked. She had been staring at the kimono for so long that she felt like she was going cross-eyed.

From the other side of the courtyard, Maz shot her a sympathetic look. Maz had been allowed to teach Rey how to sew, but she had been strictly forbidden from assisting Rey with this punishment. Maz had given Rey a crash course on the techniques of stitching and fixing the embroidery, but it was practically impossible for Rey to learn to sew like a master seamstress in on morning, which was apparently what Mother expected of her.

Rey exhaled loudly. “I can't take this anymore,” she said, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice - it wouldn't be fair to take out her anger on Maz. “I'm going out for a walk.”

“Rey -” Maz began, looking worried.

“It's fine. I'm not going to try and escape. I wouldn't get Rose and you in trouble like that,” Rey assured her. “I just need some fresh air for a moment. I'll be back in a bit.”

 

* * *

 

 

The streets of D’Qar were mostly deserted. The entertainment district only really started coming alive after sunset, once the businessmen and politicians began flocking in for the nighttime entertainment. A few passersby gave Rey curious looks, wondering why an apprentice geisha was out so early, but Rey was for the most part ignored, just the way she liked it.

She let her feet carry her aimlessly down the winding paths. Each time there was a fork in the road, Rey picked the path that appeared to have fewer buildings, fewer passersby. Soon she found herself on the outskirts of D’Qar, having left the urban sprawl behind

She had somehow made her way to a small garden - a deserted, poorly-maintained one, which seemed to all intents and purposes to have been neglected for ages. Crooked trees shredded their autumn leaves over uneven patches of overgrown, browning grass. A small, dilapidated shrine stood at the far end of the garden. But despite the creepy atmosphere, Rey was nevertheless entranced - she had never seen so much fauna back in Jakku. In the desert, gardens were a fancy for the rich.

There was a large hole in the ground. As if mesmerized, Rey slowly made her way towards it, wondering what was inside.

“Do you feel it too?”

Rey literally jumped in the air. “What - you scared me!”

Turning around, she saw a _very_ familiar man leaning against a tree trunk.

Ben Solo.

“You again!” Rey exclaimed. Where had he come from?

Ben wasn’t smiling at her this time. “How did you find this place?” he asked seriously.

“I just...kind of wandered in,” Rey confessed, starting to get anxious. Had she been trespassing? But there had been no fence, no fence to indicate that this garden was out of bounds to the public.

“You just wandered here? How curious. Interesting, that you should be drawn to this place,” Ben said. “Do you know where we are?”

“Umm...a garden?” Rey said doubtfully.

Ben was acting _weird._ His dark eyes, intense and searching, seemed to pin her to the spot, and he seemed to be hiding an expression of barely-concealed excitement.

Rey began to look about surreptitiously, suddenly extremely conscious of how vulnerable she was. A young girl, all alone in a deserted garden with a strange man. Nobody else was within earshot - even if she shouted for help, nobody would be coming to rescue her. Rey quickly began to plot out an escape route in case he suddenly got handsy.

But Ben made no move to come any closer to her.

“This place is known as the Ahch-To Garden,” he said, gesturing around them. “In the past, it used to be known as a Force nexus. People from all over the planet flocked to this shrine, one of the first few Force temples built in this city.”

_The Force, again?_

“I thought the Force was just a myth,” Rey said hesitantly. “An old religion.”

Ben shrugged. “There are still some practitioners left these days.”

“Like you?”

He actually laughed. Mesmerized, Rey noted how the laugh seemed to transform his face - the dark, intense eyes softened, the corners of his mouth curved up into a gentle smile, and Rey caught the briefest glimpse of pearly white teeth. Her heart rate shot up.

“No,” Ben said. “There are some old tales in my family about how my grandfather used to be a Force user. And I think one of my uncles was also obsessively into the religion back in the day, but I never really believed in all that. That is, until the day I met _you.”_

Rey blushed.

“Surely you must have felt that connection at the temple? I can't believe it was all in my head.”

“No,” Rey admitted. “I felt it too. Just for the briefest moment. I kind of wondered whether I had imagined it.”

“Incredible,” Ben murmured. “Why is the Force doing this? Bringing us together? I've been coming to this garden for quite a while now - the First Order headquarters are right over there, and I like to take a walk sometimes to clear my head.” He waved at an ugly concrete building rising above the roofs of the surrounding houses. “But I've never met anyone else here before. This can't just be a coincidence.”

With a jolt, Rey suddenly recalled that Ben Solo, as nice as he appeared to be, was still the _Chairman_ of the _First Order._

“It really is just a coincidence,” Rey said uncomfortably, suddenly feeling extremely aware of the vast difference between herself, a lowly apprentice geisha - just a step above a servant, really - and the man before her. The _Chairman_ of the _First Order,_ the largest arms manufacturing company on the planet. “I was just walking about, trying to clear my head. Things aren't really going so well… I just needed some fresh air.”

“Oh?”

Ben’s gaze was so kind and understanding. For some reason, when faced with a sympathetic expression and a listening ear, all her pent-up frustration came spilling out of Rey in a rush.

“I’m being bullied by another geisha in my okiya. The boss always takes her side, and just last night, she framed me for something that I didn’t even do. Now I’ve been pulled out of all my classes until I fix her kimono which she _ruined herself!_ And I wasn’t even doing well in school in the first place. I don’t know how I’m ever going to catch up with the others…” Unbidden, Rey felt tears rise to her eyes again. She blinked them back forcefully, determined not to make a fool of herself in front of Ben Solo.

“I’ve always just wanted to save up and move to the city,” Rey said quietly. “But now that I’m here, it’s nothing like what I’ve imagined. At home and in school, it’s just a bunch of backstabbing people all trying to outdo one another...I hate it here. I’ve never felt so alone.”

“You’re not alone.”

Ben’s voice was hushed, almost reverent. His eyes never left hers, seeming to burn with some sort of unspoken emotion.

Rey was the first to look away.

“I’ll see what I can do for you, Rey,” Ben said quietly.

“Really?” Rey hardly dared to believe it.

“Of course. Don’t worry about it.” The corner of his mouth quirked up, as if he were quietly amused at some sort of private joke. “Go back to your okiya. I’m sure everything will be cleared up by… let’s give it till the end of the day.”

Rey really wanted to believe him, but a lifetime of looking out for herself had left her hardened and naturally suspicious. Even though every word, every action of Ben Solo’s seemed to make her heart skip a beat, she was extremely conscious of what Mother had told her right at the beginning - _there was only one thing that a man really wanted._

“Why are you doing all this?” Rey asked, almost dreading his answer.

Now Ben seemed almost amused. “You doubt my intentions? Do you think I can’t have any geisha I want? I’m the Chairman of the First Order - if I just wanted sex, I could buy ten geisha for the night. I wouldn’t go to the trouble of trying to impress you. No, Rey… there’s something different about _you._ About us.” His expression softened. “And I really do just want to help you out.”

“Thank you,” Rey murmured, still half-disbelieving.

To trust someone else, for the first time. Could she do it?

Above her, the first snowflakes of winter began to fall from the gloomy skies.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in posting this! I have a lot of ongoing WIPs. This fic hasn't been abandoned, I swear!

  

Rey took her time getting back to the okiya. Her mind was preoccupied with the conversation which she had just had with Ben Solo. 

As she dragged her feet through the winding streets, hope and doubt warred within her. It had been so long since she had allowed herself to trust, to rely upon someone else, for what seemed like the first time in years. Back in Jakku, she always had to fend for herself. Relying on the wrong person meant going hungry, if she was lucky, and death, if she was not. 

But what reason did she have to trust him? And why was Ben Solo so eager to help a complete stranger out? 

_ Men only want one thing, _ a nagging, doubtful voice whispered at the back of her mind, repeating Padme’s words. 

Of course, Ben had denied that his intentions were purely carnal. But in these sort of matters, Padme was much more likely to be correct. 

Rey shivered involuntarily as a funny little tingle crept up her spine. Just a few days ago, she would have vehemently objected to the idea of having to sleep with any client. But if she was honest with herself, Ben Solo was so… 

Heat crept all the way up to Rey's cheeks, which were already flushed pink from the cold weather. Suddenly conscious of the falling temperature and the little flurries of snowflakes now falling from the heavens, she quickened her pace, eager to get out of the cold. She had been gone for over an hour now, and there was a chance that Padme would have already discovered her unauthorised jaunt outside the okiya. 

When Rey eventually reached the okiya, the first thing she saw was a grim-faced Maz, who had her arms crossed over her chest.

“Where on earth have you been?” Maz said worriedly. “You’ve been gone for ages! Mother was looking everywhere for you!”

Rey’s stomach dropped. She  _ knew  _ that she shouldn’t have walked so slowly on the way back. Now she was in trouble. 

“Oh, I just went out for a short walk,” Rey said, hastily picking up the two torn garments that she was supposed to be mending. “I’m almost done with these. I’ll have the kimono fixed in an hour or so.”

This was a blatant lie. Rey wasn’t even halfway done mending the tear in her own kimono, let alone Leia’s, but she saw no reason to create more stress for Maz.

“Never mind that,” Maz said, shaking her head. “Mother says that she wants to see you immediately. And she wants all of us to be there too.”

“Everyone?” Rey exclaimed in dismay. “Damn it. She probably just wants to lecture me in front of everyone else again… I would’ve finished mending this already if she hadn’t made me unpick everything and start over!” Rey picked morosely at the threads coming out of the rip in the hem of her own robe. The thought of the impending humiliation made anger flare momentarily within her.   

Maz patted her on the shoulder. “I think you better go up quickly, before she gets any angrier. She’s been looking for you for the past half hour and was furious when she couldn’t find you anywhere. I tried to cover for you, but she made me confess that you had gone out.”

As if on cue, a very familiar voice called out irritably from inside the okiya, “Is that girl back yet? Where the hell did she go?”

Rey sighed. “It’s all right, I don’t blame you for telling Mother, I know how she can get. I’ll go and see her now.” 

Maz nodded. “I’ll go and round up everyone else.”

Morosely, Rey tucked the torn kimono under her arm and made her way into the okiya.

 

* * *

 

Rey stood before Mother, looking straight ahead and trying not to fidget. Rose, Leia and Maz stood to her side, arranged in a neat little line. 

Maz looked extremely worried on Rey’s behalf. Leia looked gleeful anticipatory at the idea of Rey getting into trouble again. Rose, however, just looked puzzled.

“Put that aside,” Mother said, gesturing at the kimono in Rey’s arms. 

Rey froze, blinking in surprise. So she wasn’t going to get yet another lecture on how bad she was at sewing, and how she was the clumsiest, least-skilled, most ill-mannered girl that Mother had ever bought?

When Rey failed to comply quickly enough to Mother’s satisfaction, Mother stepped forward and impatiently jerked the kimono out of Rey’s hands. She set them aside on her large wooden desk. 

“Where have you been?” Mother asked, folding her arms across the chest. 

“I just went out for a short walk,” Rey said meekly, keeping her eyes lowered and her hands clasped before her. 

“Hmmm,” Mother said. There was a strange gleam in her eye. “I got a very interesting phone call just now,” she continued.

“I - ah -” Rey wasn’t sure what to say in response. She had no idea where this conversation was going. For some reason, Mother didn’t appear to be very angry with her, but that just made her even more dangerous - like a snake, lying in wait in the grass, patiently biding its time to strike.

“A man called to ask about you,” Mother said, watching Rey closely. “He mentioned you specifically, and said that he had greatly enjoyed the pleasure of your company, and that he was looking forward to seeing you attend his company’s annual Winter Solstice dinner in a month’s time. He insisted that you attend and entertain him personally. Of course, I was very, very surprised to hear that our Rey had been going out and entertaining men, and had managed to charm this particular man so thoroughly.”

“That little slut!” Leia burst out.  _ “Pleasuring  _ a man? She’s been sneaking out and spreading her legs for any man who looks her way!”

Rey winced. Did Ben Solo have to make it sound so scandalous? She opened her mouth to defend herself, but to Rey’s surprise, Mother held out a hand to cut both Rey and Leia off.

“Oh, that wasn’t just  _ any man,”  _ Mother said. “That man was  _ Ben Solo,  _ Chairman of the First Order. He seems to be very taken with our Rey.”

There was a sharp intake of breath, and Leia immediately fell silent. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish flopping about on dry land.

“I’m  _ very  _ impressed, Rey,” Mother purred. “A girl who can wrap  _ this  _ calibre of man around her finger is an asset to any okiya. And you’ve only been here for three days! How did you even manage to meet someone like Ben Solo? Never mind, I don't care. What matters is that you seized the opportunity to make him interested in you. A smart, pretty,  _ cunning _ girl like you will go  _ very  _ far in our world. Now tell me the truth. Have you slept with him already?”

“No!” Rey said firmly, blushing height red. Her mind was still reeling from the completely unexpected turn of events.

“Good!” Mother said briskly. “You can't give it away for free. Make him work for it, and he’ll be all the more infatuated when you eventually let him fuck you. Of course, he'll have to bid for it like everyone else, but once word gets out that such an illustrious man is interested in you - once everyone sees you in attendance at a high-profile event like the First Order dinner - we're going to get floods of interested bidders! Your first night will fetch at least double the usual going rate.” 

Rey had never seen Mother looked so pleased before - she didn't even know that Mother could actually look  _ happy. _ Rey flushed bright pink with embarrassment. 

“You're going back to school, of course,” Mother said. “I expect you to excel in your lessons - you need to be ready to impress the First Order, especially Ben Solo. Stop wasting your time trying to fix the kimono. You're really hopeless at it, and men aren't going to care if you can sew. That's not  _ entertaining. _ Give the robes to Rose. She can fix them,” Mother said dismissively. 

_ Oh no.  _ Rey sneaked a glance at Rose. Rose made a small, unintelligible noise of protest, but Mother had already swept the kimono up in her arms. She dumped the robes onto Rose, and Rose had to hold out her arms quickly to prevent them from landing on the floor. 

She looked desperately unhappy to have this thankless task dumped onto her, but she was too cowed to protest. “Yes, Mother,” Rose said quietly. 

Rey felt terrible. “I'll help you,” she offered Rose, but Mother was already shaking her head. 

“No, don't waste your time with this servants’ work,” Mother said to her. “Rose can do it. You just focus on improving as a geisha before the Winter Solstice! You have the talent, but there's still a long way to go.”

Mother gave Rey what was clearly supposed to be an encouraging smile, but Rey's attention was focused on Rose instead. Rose's head was bowed, and she was looking down at the floor, her mouth twisted in a frown. 

Rey felt awful. A horrible feeling of guilt built up within her chest, but she wasn't sure how she could salvage the situation - to explain to Rose that she hadn't meant for any of this to happen, and that she wasn't the cunning manipulator that Mother was making her out to be. 

It would have been futile, anyway. Even Leia was looking at Rey differently now - with her usual loathing, yes, but mixed in with that was newfound respect and wariness. 

Mother clapped her hands briskly. “Right, Rey, go and get some rest. You need to be well-rested for classes tomorrow. Maz, go and help Leia get ready for her evening rounds. Rose, I want the kimono mended by tomorrow, latest. At least try and do that right.”

“Yes, Mother,” Rose mumbled. 

“You can all go.”

Leia was the first one out of the room, sweeping past Rey with her nose in the air, with Maz behind her. Rose followed them, her hands clenched so tightly around the kimono that her knuckles were stark white.

“Rose, wait!” Rey called, hurrying to catch up. 

Rose turned to face her. “What is it?” she said flatly. 

“I - I'm sorry that Mother is making you do this,” Rey said helplessly. “I know it's not fair. I swear, it's not like what you must be imagining - ”

“You're right. It's not fair,” Rose cut her off. “I've been here longer than you, and I still can't - I won't - well, I guess I'm just not a very good geisha. Not like you're going to be. Look, just - just leave me alone, okay?”

She turned her back on Rey and stalked off, her white-socked feet slapping softly against the tatami flooring. 

Rey watched her only friend in the okiya depart, feeling her heart sink to the pit of her stomach.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos appreciated! 
> 
> Come say hi on [tumblr!](http://starawr.tumblr.com) :)


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